Wednesday, February 6, 2008

DOES FORT WORTH EVER CROSS YOUR MIND?

For weeks, if not months, it seems like people with normally good sense and judgment have become obsessed with all this presidential race nonsense. You can't open the morning paper or cut on the teevee set or radio with being deluged with McCain this or Obama that.

So in the interest of diversity, let's talk about the upcoming (okay, it's two-plus years from now) Texas gubernatorial race. There's some interesting stuff going on that front. And it affects us a heckuva lot more that some White House deal.

Here's Billy Clyde's latest news on Governor's Race 2010: Passion For The Mansion.

This came up because someone pointed out to me today that Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan has been hired as the new president of the Texas Rangers organization. That's a job formerly held by Tom Schieffer, who I have a sneaky suspicion just might be the consensus candidate to proudly be the Lone Star State's next main man.

A lot of Texans probably think of Schieffer as nothing more than the former U.S. Ambassador to Australia and the current Ambassador to Japan. But Tom has serious political credentials, including a stint as a real-life duly elected sitting member of the Texas House of Representatives. He also has major business, educational, and charitable cred. And let's face it, if you don't like Tom Schieffer, you just don't like people.

While he may not have the name ID of his brother, who hosts "Face The Nation" and anchored the CBS Evening News, people in the baseball and Metroplex communities know him well. In the Fort Worth area, the Schieffer name is almost as golden as Bass or Geren. While I'm not privy to polling data on the subject, I'd bet he is better known up there than Roger Williams, the former baseball standout and coach at TCU, from which the Schieffer boys hail.

Now I know what some of you skeptics might be thinking: A man of Tom Schieffer's stature would never subject himself to the indignities involved in a gubernatorial race. Plus he'd have to pick a political party and campaign and whatnot. But I bet if we got him in a room with Gib Lewis and Richard Rainwater and Amon Carter and Dan Jenkins and a few other Fort Worth bigwigs ... well, the deal would get cut. Count on it.

To those out there who are members of the "Ye of Little Faith Club," let me give you two really good reasons why us red-blooded salt-of-the-Earth Texans should line up behind Tom Schieffer and nail this thing down: (1) Tom would clear the field and be our next governor; and (2) Rick Perry would get that ridiculous notion of running for another term out of his system.

'Nuff said.

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